Southampton to Central London: cheapest / best route?

Suzkin

Hello Travel Boarders, :j

This is my first post to this board, as recommended by another forum. I'm in a spot of difficulty, and was wondering whether anyone might be able to kindly help: I commute from Southampton to central London (Holborn, to be precise) daily, and need to know the cheapest / most cost effective route. My work hours in London are as follows:

Mon 1-5pm (then eve class in London to 8pm)
Tues 1-5pm
Wed 9.30am-5pm
Thurs 9.30am-5pm (then other stuff in London 6-8pm)
Fri 1-5pm (then other stuff in London 5.30-7pm)

I've already looked into the ways below:

Coach - psychologically, too long in time and duration.
Megabus/train - times do not coincide with mine.
Rail - Using a 16-25 YPRailcard, I've paid daily.
Rail season ticket - I've been quoted £116.70 for 7 days, or £448.20 per calendar month.
Someone has suggested boarding in London for Tues & Wed eves.
Someone has suggested taking train from Soton to one of the outerzones (not sure where to?) and then using Oystercard from there to Holborn via underground.

All suggestions and comments very welcome - I'm at my wits end! xx

dzug1

You are going to have to switch to the Underground at Wimbledon to be able to use PAYG Oyster - it's not valid on the mainline out of Waterloo. I think it will add too much to the journey time to be attractive and may not save much if anything.

Two possibilities, well three:

PAYG Oyster from Waterloo to Holborn will cost £3 a day on the tube
PAYG Oyster from Waterloo to Holborn will be £1.80 a day on the bus
Walking from Waterloo to Holborn will be free.

Compare that with what you are paying to extend your ticket to Zone 1 to see if it's worth it

And compare the season to daily tickets - I can't be bothered to do the maths but I suspect daily are cheaper as there is no railcard discount on season tickets

Get your YP card registered on the Oyster if you get one. On a normal day it will be irrelevant but if you do extra journeys there is a lower cap

moonrakerz

It looks as though your travel times; up, down or both; all fall within "peak" times. As a result you wont be able to use off-peak tickets.
The best bet looks like the season ticket - a lot to pay out up front !

Suzkin

dzug1 wrote: »

You are going to have to switch to the Underground at Wimbledon to be able to use PAYG Oyster - it's not valid on the mainline out of Waterloo. I think it will add too much to the journey time to be attractive and may not save much if anything.

Two possibilities, well three:

PAYG Oyster from Waterloo to Holborn will cost £3 a day on the tube
PAYG Oyster from Waterloo to Holborn will be £1.80 a day on the bus
Walking from Waterloo to Holborn will be free.

Compare that with what you are paying to extend your ticket to Zone 1 to see if it's worth it

And compare the season to daily tickets - I can't be bothered to do the maths but I suspect daily are cheaper as there is no railcard discount on season tickets

Get your YP card registered on the Oyster if you get one. On a normal day it will be irrelevant but if you do extra journeys there is a lower cap

Hi there - I have a cap on my Oyster card re. the Railcard. They told me the cap would be £6.30 if travelling peak before 9.30am, and £4.80 off peak. I'm going to look into walking to Holborn - although I think it will take too long?